I love walking to the comics store in the place where I grew up.
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PLEASE NOTE: What follows is not a series of capsule reviews but an annotated selection of items listed by Diamond Comic Distributors for release to comic book retailers in North America on the particular Wednesday identified in the column title above. Be aware that some of these comics may be published by Fantagraphics Books, the entity which also administers the posting of this column, and that I also run a podcast with an employee of Nobrow Press. Not every listed item will necessarily arrive at every comic book retailer, in that some items may be delayed and ordered quantities will vary. I have in all likelihood not read any of the comics listed below, in that they are not yet released as of the writing of this column, nor will I necessarily read or purchase every item identified; THIS WEEK IN COMICS! reflects only what I find to be potentially interesting. You could always just buy nothing.
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SPOTLIGHT PICKS!
The Theory of the Grain of Sand: While I can't say these English editions of comics by François Schuiten & Benoît Peeters have been frequent, they are always welcome - a sizable body of this highly distinctive output still awaits translation. Actually, just the other day I ran across some manga by Yukinobu Hoshino (longtime seinen artist, quite western-informed, creator of 2001 Nights and the Professor Munakata series) that seemed to draw some visual influence from early Schuiten/Peeters works such as The Great Walls of Samaris (1983) and Fever in Urbicand (1985), which were translated to Japanese beginning in 2011:
Anyway, The Theory of the Grain of Sand is one of the most recent Schuiten/Peeters collaborations -- expect fanciful architecture charged with the allegorical flair of a morality play -- originally serialized across two French albums in 2007 and 2008. This 9.375" x 11" softcover collects the whole story into a single 128-page package. Translated by Ivanka Hahnenberger for Alaxis Press and published via IDW; $19.99.
The Life and Legend of Wallace Wood Vol. 1: Your book-on-comics of the week goes up here, as it looks especially large and loaded with stuff necessary to address the many aspects of the beloved Wood: influential draftsman and independent comics maverick. Moreover, the book itself is something of a historical item, with origins in the 1980s, several portions pre-published in The Comics Journal in the 1990s, and a somewhat different iteration of itself released by TwoMorrows as Against The Grain: Mad Artist Wallace Wood in 2003. Described by publisher Fantagraphics as a "collective biographical and critical portrait," this 304-page, 10" x 12" package promises contributions by peers, collaborators, assistants and admirers such as Bill Gaines, Al Williamson, Paul Kirchner, Trina Robbins and Larry Hama, along with many photos and illustrations. Edited by the late Bhob Stewart (himself a former Wood assistant), with an introduction by Howard Chaykin & Maria Reidelbach; $39.99.
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PLUS!
Wuvable Oaf: Blood & Metal: Another Fantagraphics item, this time a second collection of work from Ed Luce, following up 2015's Wuvable Oaf. Very strong cartoon look to this stuff - fantasy-kissed gay relationship drama, its emphasis on nerdy-aggressive pursuits like metal and wrestling, with a flair for the grotesque. The first one had enough in the way of oozing fluids and textured bodies I didn't realize until my second look that the sex isn't actually very explicit, it's just got a lot of swagger. A 100-page, 7.25" x 10" hardcover; $19.99.
Lake Jehovah (&) Titan #4: Two more from the wider world of new small-press comics. Lake Jehovah is a 216-page color release from artist Jillian Fleck and Conundrum Press, blending cataclysmic prophesy with Alberta local legend and queer relationship angst. Titan is a Study Group comic book distributed via Alternative, continuing the outer space labor/romantic relations web serial by François Vigneault; $20.00 (Jehovah), $4.95 (Titan).
Squalor (&) Pandora's Eyes: Two from the wide world of reprints. Squalor has been a personal interest of mine for a little while; it's a 1989-90 First Comics miniseries from writer Stefan Petrucha (a prolific novelist who's also worked extensively in licensed and all-ages comics) and artist Tom Sutton, the latter collaborating with colorist Paul Mounts for some of his most distinctive latter-period work. Lots of metaphysical themes swirling around in this one, a post-everything SF burnout through unstuck parallel times. Recommended! The collected edition comes from Caliber. Pandora's Eyes finds artist Milo Manara at his most mainstream, collaborating with the screenwriter Vincenzo Cerami (an Oscar nominee for the 1997 film Life is Beautiful) on an international suspense drama about a lovely woman with a dangerous lineage. Sort of a EuropaCorp movie in 64-page comics form - released in French in 2007, first translated to English in 2011, and now available again with new colors by Francesco Gaston in a 9.4" x 12.6" hardcover via Humanoids; $19.99 (Squalor), $24.95 (Pandora's).
Empire of Blood: Another odd one I happen to like, but much newer; a 2015-16 miniseries from Graphic India (which I believe was split up from an original graphic novel published in India itself), pairing writer Arjun Raj Gaind with the veteran artist Enrique Alcatena for a sprawling class metaphor in a fantastical British empire powered by vampiric fuel of blood. Jangly and weird, flip through it; $14.95.
Scumbag Loser Omnibus (&) Happiness Vol. 2: Licentious horror manga, like your unusually hip mother nonetheless warned you about. There is no way I was ever not going to list a comic with a title like Scumbag Loser Omnibus, but instead of being a 1990s autobiographical indie comics compilation, it actually collects a complete Mikoto Yamaguchi serial about a nerd with a perverted sense of smell who concocts a long-distance relationship lie to impress the kids at school, appropriating the name of a dead girl he used to know. Then the dead girl shows up for class. A 592-page Yen Press release. Speaking of shitbugs, Happiness continues the new project from Shūzō Oshimi of The Flowers of Evil, in which a lonely boy is bitten by a girl vampire, compounding all of his awful issues. Kodansha publishes; $30.00 (SCUMBAG LOSER OMNIBUS, gang), $12.99 (Happiness).
Turn Loose Our Death Rays and Kill Them All: The Compete Works of Fletcher Hanks (&) Buz Sawyer Vol. 4: Zazarof's Revenge: Vintage comics from Fantagraphics, continuing down certain known paths. Turn Loose Our Death Rays combines the publisher's two prior Fletcher Hanks collections with a scattering of otherwise unaccounted-for shorts for a 376-page comprehensive edition of what at this point may be the non-corporate-superhero-related Golden Age comics that truly require no introduction. Edited, as ever, by Paul Karasik. Buz Sawyer, of course, is the adventuresome newspaper strip creation of Roy Crane, collecting ten storylines from the '40s into the '50s; $49.99 (Death), $39.99 (Buz).
Copra: Round Four: Finally - this goes at the bottom because it's drawn by a friend and published by a frequent collaborator of my own (who, moreover, is a former columnist for this site), but I would nonetheless be remiss to neglect this latest collected edition for the now-long-running small-press superhero series by Michel Fiffe, as much a venue for exploring his various generic and cartooning fascinations as the steady-building action/suspense narrative is also happens to be. From Bergen Street Press, containing issues #19-24; $19.95.
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The front page image this week is detailed from the October 30, 1898 installment of Richard F. Outcault's Kelly's Kindergarten, as captured from the superb 2013 Sunday Press Books collection Society is Nix: Gleeful Anarchy at the Dawn of the American Comic Strip, 1895-15.
